This book is about an air service during the First World War, more specifically about the aviators and aircraft that made it a success despite all the social and logistic problems it faced during its short existence. All things considered, it is remarkable that these men and women accomplished as much as they did while their entire world dramatically changed before their eyes. In short, it is a book about human devotion, sacrifice, and— above all—courage.

Considering the chaos of the Russian civil war and the closure of historical archives under the Soviet government, it is not surprising that an official Russian history of its air service during World War I does not exist; until there is one, much that happened will remain unclear. None the less, it is possible to arrive at a basic narrative of events and to make some effort at describing them, especially when comparison can be made with Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian sources.

To do justice to this vast subject, each chapter of this book would warrant a volume several times the size of this study. Generalizations and simplifications of some questions and problems and the omission of others of lesser consequence are therefore inevitable. Despite these limitations, imposed mainly by space considerations, the book represents the first work to cover the history of the Imperial Russian Air Service.

Air warfare was perhaps the most important military development arising from World War I. However, war in the air was not entirely new when hostilities started in August 1914. Aerial observation by balloon had been practiced for more than a century, and the first antiaircraft fire in history was as early as 1794, when an Austrian cannonball nearly hit the bottom of a French balloon-basket. In effect, however, military aviation began less than eight years after the Wright Brothers' first powered flight: on 22 October, 1911, an Italian Nieuport made the first official military reconnaissance flight in the Italo-Turkish war, and days later, on 1 November, an Italian Etrich Taube dropped the first bombs in action.

Clearly, these early episodes helped to stir interest in aviation and ensured that aviation would have a place in warfare. Consequently, at the outbreak of World War I, each of the major powers had at its disposal fleets of aircraft that reflected the importance placed on military aviation. Russia (which had virtually no independent national aircraft industry) had nearly 250 machines, Germany about 230, France some 130, and Britain managed to assemble about 60.

If any doubt still existed about aircraft, it clearly faded in the early months of the conflict, when the ground war became increasingly static and cavalry patrolling impossible. By early 1915 aerial reconnaissance became the most reliable method of obtaining information on enemy movements, and by mid-1915 aerial cameras were able to produce photographs of outstanding clarity that presented a view of enemy positions never before available to a general. In fact, by war's end, nearly two-thirds of all intelligence was gathered by this means. Airborne artillery spotting had been made effective by the development of wireless telegraphy. Aerial bombing assumed increased importance as the war progressed and strategic bombing was made feasible by the development of longer-range aircraft capable of carrying a larger bomb-load.

Russia's air service possessed all these capabilities and in many cases was the first to introduce them. By 1916 the Russian navy possessed the world's second most powerful seaplane carrier force, outmatched in size only by that of the Royal Navy. However, the Russian navy surpassed the Royal Navy in efficiency and aggression. The Russian aviators Nesterov, Kruten, and Orlov had each produced technical manuals to teach aerial tactics to fledgling pilots well before the other air forces considered it necessary. In matters of strategic bombing, the EVK units, operating with Sikorsky's giant Il'ya Muromets bombers, were second to none in effectiveness throughout the entire war.

My first aim in writing this book has been relatively straight-forward: to fill a significantly large gap in aviation history of the First World War. In preparing this work a great amount of effort was put into correction of errors and inaccuracies that have found their way into print. As a result, the second objective of this book was to correct some of the lingering myths that have surrounded Russia's air service.

A brief explanation is in order concerning the manner of presentation of this book's contents. The photographs represent years of collecting, and the photo captions are longer to allow the inclusion of sufficient information to make the photos more meaningful to the reader. This same purpose was also in mind when writing the paragraphs of text accompanying the color illustrations. The illustrations themselves are of crucial importance in correctly portraying aircraft, uniforms, and awards, as well as aiding in the description of the Russian system of coloration, national markings, and serial number identification system.

For the reader unfamiliar with the role of Russia's air service in the First World War, the brief overviews covering the army, navy, and EVK may prove useful before reading the main body of text concerning specific aviators and aircraft types.

In each section of the book, and again in the appendices, the aviator biographies are arranged alphabetically. Russian name forms are used for the sake of uniformity and because Russian was the official language of the empire. For the sake of simplicity, the names of decorations are given in English. The first time any rank is mentioned it is translated into an English equivalent. An English-to-Russian glossary has been provided as a quick reference guide to most commonly used terms.

We have used the transliteration system from Cyrillic script of the United States Board on Geographic Names, except for names that have acquired a familiar transliteration—Sikorsky, for example, instead of Sikorskiy.

All dates have been converted from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian. Before the revolution of November, 1917, Russia followed the Julian calendar, which in the twentieth century was thirteen days behind the Gregorian or Western calendar. Similarly, we have converted the old Russian system of measurements of weights and distance to the metric system.

Wherever they were appropriate, the aviators' original letters and combat reports have been included to allow the fliers to speak for themselves. In some cases they have been abridged to make the narrative more coherent.

To avoid confusion, it was decided to retain the city name St. Petersburg throughout the text. The second term requiring explanation is detachment. It was decided to use detachment as the translation of the Russian word otriad. Historically, otriad was the smallest basic organizational and tactical aviation unit in the Imperial Russian Air Service.

To supplement the chapters concerning aircraft designers and manufacturers, a large set of technical drawings has been assembled.

Appendices include information on the Aeronautical 'Balloon' Corps, awards and decorations available to Russian aviators, and the most detailed victory lists yet compiled for each Russian ace.

This book represents ten years of research and contains mostly new material and photographs that have never appeared in print before. Main sources of information were the military and other historical archives throughout the world, but primarily those in Russia, Romania, Germany, Austria, and the United States.

I started my investigation in 1985 while conducting a two-year general research into World War I aviation. In 1987 I met with a fellow researcher/writer, the late Dr. Martin O'Connor, to discuss gaps in information. The next month I spoke at length with fellow historian Tom Darcey, who agreed to assist with the project. The third member of the team—Victor Kulikov—joined the project in 1993.

Besides being the primary researcher, writer, and artist of this book, I felt my role also included that of team leader, responsible for keeping the project on track, and coordinating and overseeing its growth. Although I played a major role in the book's final format, I should acknowledge that Tom Darcey alone suggested a foreign service section and for the most part worked alone to bring it to fruition. Tom's major writing also included the manufacturer sections, lighter-than-air appendix, and several pilot biographies. Although Victor Kulikov did not participate in the writing phase of this book, he was instrumental in obtaining information and photographs. Without his help this book would not have been possible.

In the course of researching and writing this book, much help has come from many people. The 14 persons whose photos are included in the Acknowledgment section are those who continually supported me for many years and without whose help this book could not have been completed. Many others who deserve recognition are also included.